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Daily Archives: September 25, 2014

An Information Theory of Copyright Law

Fromer, Jeanne C., An Information Theory of Copyright Law (September 23, 2014). Emory Law Journal, Vol. 64, p. 71, 2014. Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2500614

The dominant American theory of copyright law is utilitarian, in offering the incentive of limited copyright protection to creators to generate material that is valuable to society. Less settled is the question of the sorts of works that copyright law seeks to encourage: Ever more copyrightable creations? Only some that are artistically worthy? What makes a work valuable to society? This Article seeks to answer important aspects of these questions by examining them through the lens of information theory, a branch of applied mathematics that quantifies information and suggests optimal ways to transmit it. Using these concepts, this Article proposes that what makes expressive works valuable to society is that they make a contribution in at least one of two principal ways: by using that expression to communicate knowledge — be it systematic, factual, or cultural — and by conveying expression that is enjoyable in and of itself. Information theory sheds light on how copyright law can spur these valuable works. In undertaking this analysis, this Article explores the implications for the central doctrines of copyright law, including copyrightability, the idea-expression distinction, infringement, and fair use. In this context, this Article also considers whether we want distinct creators communicating these valuable types of information or whether it is optimal to unify particular communications of information in a single creator.”

Systemically Important or “Too Big to Fail” Financial Institutions

CRS – Systemically Important or “Too Big to Fail” Financial Institutions. Marc Labonte, Specialist in Macroeconomic Policy. September 19, 2014. “Although “too big to fail” (TBTF) has been a perennial policy issue, it was highlighted by the near-collapse of several large financial firms in 2008. Financial firms are said to be TBTF when policy makers judge that their failure would… Continue Reading

Assessment of the FRBNY DSGE Model’s Real-Time Forecasts, 2010-13

Matthew Cocci, Marco Del Negro, Stefano Eusepi, Marc Giannoni, and Sara Shahanaghi  – Fourth in a five-part series “This series examines the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (FRBNY DSGE) model—a structural model used by Bank researchers to understand the workings of the U.S. economy and provide economic forecasts.The previous post in this… Continue Reading

Stop-and-Frisk Abuses & the Continued Fight to End Racial Profiling in America – Report

Born Suspect – NAACP – September 2014: “For more than a century the NAACP has been engaged in the fight for a more fair and effective system of policing in America. Indeed, the first case the Association took on after its inception in 1910 involved defending a sharecropper from an illegal police raid on his… Continue Reading

2012 Business Dynamics Statistics

“The Business Dynamics Statistics provide annual statistics on establishments, firms, and job creation and job destruction from 1976 to 2012 by firm age and size. These statistics are crucial to understanding current and historical U.S. entrepreneurial activity. The statistics come from a collaboration between the Census Bureau’s Center for Economic Studies, the Small Business Administration,… Continue Reading

New GAO Reports – Aviation, Cloud Computing, Data Center Consolidation, Littoral Combat Ship, Overseas Real Property

AVIATION: Impact of Fuel Price Increases on the Aviation Industry, GAO-14-331: Published: Sep 25, 2014. Publicly Released: Sep 25, 2014. CLOUD COMPUTING: Additional Opportunities and Savings Need to Be Pursued, GAO-14-753: Published: Sep 25, 2014. Publicly Released: Sep 25, 2014. DATA CENTER CONSOLIDATION: Reporting Can Be Improved to Reflect Substantial Planned Savings, GAO-14-713: Published: Sep 25, 2014. Publicly Released: Sep 25, 2014. LITTORAL… Continue Reading

The High Cost of a Littered Beach – NOAA

“A recent NOAA-funded Marine Debris Program economics study found that Southern California residents are losing millions of dollars each year by avoiding nearby littered beaches and traveling to beaches that are farther away and cleaner. The study is the first of its kind to look at how marine debris influences decisions to go to the beach and what… Continue Reading

Moody’s – Largest Public Pensions Face $2 Trillion Gap

Brian Chappatta – Bloomberg: “The 25 largest U.S. public pensions face about $2 trillion in unfunded liabilities, showing that investment returns can’t keep up with ballooning obligations, according to Moody’s Investors ServiceThe 25 biggest systems by assets averaged a 7.45 percent return from 2004 to 2013, close to the expected 7.65 percent rate, Moody’s said… Continue Reading

Reasoning about Interference Between Units: A General Framework

Reasoning about Interference Between Units: A General Framework, Jake Bowers, Mark M. Fredrickson, Costas Panagopoulos “If an experimental treatment is experienced by both treated and control group units, tests of hypotheses about causal effects may be difficult to conceptualize, let alone execute. In this article, we show how counterfactual causal models may be written and tested when theories… Continue Reading

How Much (More) Should CEOs Make? A Universal Desire for More Equal Pay

Kiatpongsan, Sorapop, and Michael I. Norton. How Much (More) Should CEOs Make? A Universal Desire for More Equal Pay. Perspectives on Psychological Science (forthcoming). “Do people from different countries and different backgrounds have similar preferences for how much more the rich should earn than the poor? Using survey data from 40 countries (N = 55,238), we compare respondents’ estimates of… Continue Reading